Hurricane Bill, the first of the Atlantic storm season, doused Bermuda with heavy rain yesterday as it barreled past the islands, raising fears of life-threatening waves along the US east coast.
Packing winds of 165km an hour, the hurricane was set to head perilously close to the upscale island resort of Martha’s Vineyard, where US President Barack Obama and his family are heading for vacation today.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of “extremely dangerous” surf and “life-threatening rip currents” throughout a vast area including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
But the center downgraded the hurricane a notch to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning the storm threatens to cause widespread damage but does not carry the same potential to destroy weak homes as a Category 3 storm.
In the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola, authorities reported waves up to 3m high churned up from Bill’s passage.
Bermuda shut down its main international gateway, L.F. Wade International Airport, for the night as the tourist island bunkered in.
“It’s quite wild at the moment, but we’re used to hurricanes in Bermuda,” said Lorna Cervantez, who works at the island’s Royal Palms Hotel. “From our previous experience, we have to get ready.”
Residents of the British overseas territory with gas cylinders were asked to turn them off as they could become dangerous projectiles if winds pick up.
Bermuda was expected to avoid a direct hit from Bill as the hurricane churns past it on its way to near Massachusetts in time for the Obamas’ arrival.
Yacht owners battened down the hatches at Martha’s Vineyard, a popular island of tranquility for the rich and famous where the US first family was scheduled to spend a week unwinding for the first time since Obama’s inauguration in January.
“Phones are ringing off the hook and the hurricane is all people are talking about,” said Ned Kaiser, the assistant harbor master at Martha’s Vineyard.
“We’re hearing we’ll have pretty big seas with the storm surge coming. Out in the ocean now, the waves are 12 to 15 feet [3.7m to 4.6m].”
One of the most prominent people affected by the hurricane was coincidentally also named Bill — former US president Bill Clinton, who was taking a vacation in Bermuda with his wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the power couple left on Thursday, but would not comment on the next stop in their vacation, which Clinton aides have kept a closely guarded secret.
It was the latest bad vacation news for the itinerant travelers, who canceled an earlier holiday on the Greek island of Corfu after the US diplomatic chief broke her elbow, forcing her to skip a trip to a regional conference there.
US oil giant Exxon Mobil said it was evacuating all 200 workers from a gas platform off the Canadian east coast ahead of Hurricane Bill’s expected weekend arrival.
Women’s accessories sold by some of the world’s most popular online shopping firms contained toxic substances sometimes hundreds of times above acceptable levels, authorities in Seoul said yesterday. Chinese giants including Shein, Temu and AliExpress have skyrocketed in popularity around the world in the past few years, offering a vast selection of trendy clothes and accessories at low prices. The explosive growth has led to increased scrutiny of their business practices and safety standards, including in the EU and South Korea, where Seoul officials have been conducting weekly inspections of items sold by online platforms. In the most recent inspection, 144 products from
The US on Monday confirmed that it would resume sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, as concerns over human rights in the kingdom’s Yemen war give way to US hopes for it to play a role in resolving the conflict in Gaza. More than three years after imposing limits on human rights grounds over Saudi Arabian strikes in Yemen, the US Department of State said that it would return to weapons sales “in regular order, with appropriate congressional notification and consultation.” “Saudi Arabia has remained a close strategic partner of the United States, and we look forward to enhancing that partnership,”
Russia yesterday ordered more evacuations in a region bordering Ukraine as it battled to contain an unprecedented push onto its territory by Kyiv’s forces. Ukraine last week sent troops into Russia’s border region of Kursk, in the largest cross-border operation by Kyiv since Moscow launched its offensive more than two years ago. The assault, which has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing, marked the most significant attack by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II. A top Ukrainian official said that the operation was aimed at stretching Moscow troops and destabilizing the nation after months of slow Russian advances
US ELECTIONS: The polling showed the Harris-Walz ticket leading the Trump-Vance ticket by a 50 percent to 46 percent margin in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin US Vice President and Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris now leads former US president and Republican Party nominee Donald Trump in three crucial battleground states, according to new polls published on Saturday, apparently eroding the advantage Trump has enjoyed there over the past year. The polls of likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College showed Democratic presidential candidate Harris leading her Republican rival Trump by an identical 50 percent to 46 percent margin in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Under the US electoral college voting system, those three populous Midwestern states are considered key to victory for either party. Harris’